Inside The 1890 House: Exploring Cortland's Gilded Age Mansion Before the Lights Go Out

Before you can investigate a location, you have to understand it. That's something I've believed since the earliest days of TAPS, and it's exactly why we spent time walking every room of The 1890 House Museum in Cortland, New York before we ever pulled out a single piece of equipment. What we found inside this stunning Gilded Age mansion was a history so rich, so layered, that it made everything that happened once the lights went out feel that much more significant.

The first thing that hits you about The 1890 House is the sheer weight of it — and I mean that literally. This is a massive stone mansion, built during one of the most opulent eras in American history, and it was designed to make an impression. Chester F. Wickwire, the industrialist who commissioned this home, wasn't shy about his success. From the exterior tower to the intricate woodwork inside, every detail tells you something about the man who built it and the world he lived in. As someone who has walked through hundreds of historic locations over the years, I can tell you that this one genuinely stopped me in my tracks.

I've always said that a building's history is just as important as whatever claims are being made about it. When you understand who lived in a place, what they experienced, what they valued — sometimes the so-called paranormal activity starts to make a lot more sense. And sometimes it doesn't hold up at all once you have the full picture. That's the whole point of going in skeptical. It's not about dismissing people's experiences. It's about giving those experiences the respect they deserve by actually doing the work before jumping to conclusions. Walking through The 1890 House with that mindset, learning about the Wickwire family and the staff and everyone else who passed through these rooms over more than a century, gave us a real foundation to work from.

What struck me during the tour was how intact so much of the home is. You're not looking at a heavily renovated building that's lost its soul to modernization. The craftsmanship, the period details, the layout of the rooms — it all feels genuinely preserved. And with preservation comes atmosphere. There's a certain stillness in a place like this that you don't find in newer buildings. Whether that stillness means anything from a paranormal standpoint is exactly what we set out to determine. But I'll tell you this much: if any location was going to give us something worth investigating, The 1890 House had the bones for it. The history is deep, the structure is extraordinary, and the stories connected to this place are exactly the kind that keep us coming back to locations like this year after year.

This episode is the tour. The history. The groundwork. We wanted to bring you along for that part of the process because I think it matters. Too often, people skip straight to the investigation footage without understanding why a location is significant in the first place. The Wickwire family built something remarkable here in Cortland, and before we spend the night trying to figure out whether something unexplained is happening inside these walls, it felt right to give this house — and the people who once called it home — the proper introduction they deserve. The investigation comes next, and trust me, you're going to want to have seen this first.

The 1890 House Museum is one of the most genuinely impressive historic locations I've had the opportunity to explore, and the history alone makes it worth your time. Whether the investigation turns up something we can't explain or whether we're able to put the claims to rest, one thing is certain — this building has earned its place in the conversation. Stay subscribed, because the investigation episode is coming, and you won't want to walk into that one cold.